Only The Good Die Young
by Delilah Dreamer
Summary: Finn and Rachel are happily married with kids of their own, but what happens when tragedy strikes on the night of their oldest daughter's junior Prom. Finn has to learn to cope with losing his little girl, but it's kind of hard when he sees her everywhere
1. Chapter 1

It was a normal Saturday night in the Hudson family home. Rachel was finishing up doing the dishes in the kitchen, Finn was grading papers from his students at the high school, and their daughters, thirteen year old Alexis and eleven year old Marissa, were watching a movie in the family room. The only difference was that tonight was their oldest daughter Calliope's junior prom. Rachel had spent the day taking her to various hair and nail appointments, and for the first time, Calliope was going to a dance with a date and not a group of her girlfriends. Needless to say, it was an important night.

"I'm ready!" Finn heard his daughter call down from the top of the stairs. Shortly after, he heard his wife calling for him to grab the camera. He grabbed it off of the table next to the stack of papers he was finished with and headed into the house's entryway where the staircase that led up to the second floor was located. His wife and two younger daughters were already waiting there, and Rachel called up to Calliope to tell her to come down once Finn was in place to take the pictures. He almost forgot to when he saw her coming down the stairs.

Calliope was dressed in a simple dark green dress with a sweetheart neckline. A little bit of tulle under the skirt made the skirt stand away from her body a little bit, and a thin green ribbon was tied in a bow in the back at her waistline. Her light brown hair was done up in a French twist and fake gold leaves were weaved through it. He didn't really know what she'd done with her makeup, but her chocolate brown eyes seemed to sparkle even more than usual.

Lifting the hem of her skirt so she could come down the stairs, Finn noticed a pair of gold, sequined ballet flats on her feet that had obviously come from her mother's closet. He snapped a few pictures here and there, but he couldn't take his eyes off of his daughter. He couldn't believe that this was the little girl that they'd brought home from the hospital seventeen years ago. She'd grown up so fast, and he didn't know where the days had gone.

He watched as Calliope finally made her way to the bottom of the staircase and was surrounded by her mother and sisters as they drowned her with compliments. It wasn't long before Rachel was pushing them all into the living room for pictures. First a few of Calliope by herself, then some shots of her with her sisters: a couple of serious shots and then goofier photos with silly faces, bunny ears, and Charlie's Angels' poses. The camera was passed off to Alexis, and she took a few photos of her parents with her big sister.

After several dozen shots had been taken, the doorbell rang, and Calliope raced back to the stairs. "That must be Kyle! Don't let him in until I'm back upstairs! I want him to see my grand entrance!"

Finn waited until she was back at the top of the stairs before answering the door. Standing there were Kyle's parents, Puck and Quinn Puckerman. "Hey you guys," Finn greeted his friends with a smile. "Where's Kyle?"

"He's still parking his car," Puck replied. "We drove here separately, so they can drive to prom alone."

"I brought my camera!" Quinn smiled. "We want lots of pictures. I can't believe our kids are going to prom together in the same old high school gym that we had our junior prom in."

"Neither can I," Rachel said as she joined the group. "It seems as if our junior prom was only yesterday."

Just then, Kyle walked up to the front door in a simple black tux. His tie was the same color as Calliope's dress, and he held a small corsage box in his hand. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Hudson," he said obviously nervous about being in front of his date's parents. Even though they'd known him since he was born, he was still their daughter's boyfriend, and that made him nervous.

"Calliope!" Rachel called up the stairs. "Your date is here!" No sooner had the words left Rachel's mouth did Calliope start her trip down the staircase again. Finn watched Kyle this time, and the boy seemed to light up at the sight of his daughter. It reminded Finn of the way he looked at Rachel which instantly mean that he had to worry about his little girl.

"Wow . . . Callie Cat . . . you look . . . just wow." That was the only thing Kyle could say as Calliope made her way over to Kyle, a huge smile plastered on her face.

Finn turned to his wife and mouthed the words "Callie Cat" with a confused look on his face. Rachel just smiled at him, shook her head and turned her attention back to the teenagers standing in front of them.

"Thank Kyle," Calliope blushed. "You look really great, too."

"Thanks."

"So, tell us your plans for this evening," Puck said as he looked at the kids. "We're curious."

"Well, after you guy take pictures of us, we're heading over to my friend Robbie's place," Kyle started. "We're going to do group photos there, and then the limo is going to take us to prom."

"And after the dance, we'll all be going back to Robbie's house for a little after party," Calliope told them. When that's over, I'll be heading over to Michelle's house for a sleepover."

"Want to repeat the rules of the evening for us?" Finn asked.

"No drugs, no alcohol, and at the place where I'm sleeping for the night by midnight," Calliope stated.

"Well then, I think we're ready to go outside for pictures," Rachel said as she started to usher everyone outside. Soon, the only people left in the house were Finn and Calliope.

"Do I look pretty, daddy?" she asked him with a small smile.

"You're beautiful, princess," he told her. "So beautiful, in fact, that I might just have to inform Kyle that if he touches you, I have a gun and a shovel that say it's a bad idea."

"You wouldn't!" she gasped.

"I'm only teasing, sweetheart. Now let's go out there and take some more pictures. Your mom will kill me if I don't capture every second on film."

"Alright, let's do this," she paused and started to leave before she turned back around and wrapped her dad up in a hug as best as she could. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you, too, princess." He hugged her back and placed a small kiss on the top of her head, being ever so careful not to mess up what the stylist at the salon had done.

After what seemed like ages, Rachel and Quinn were finally satisfied with the number of pictures they had of their children posing together. There were shots of them standing next to each other, shots of Kyle pinning on Calliope's corsage, shots of them hugging, shots of them climbing into Kyle's car, shots where it looked like Kyle was helping Calliope out of his car, and, much to Finn's dismay, shots of them kissing.

"You kids have fun tonight!" Rachel said with a smile and a small wave as their car started to pull away.

"Don't do anything we wouldn't do," Puck laughed.

"That's what I'm afraid they'll do," Finn uttered. "We were not the best people in high school."

"Oh lighten up, Finn," Puck replied. "They're smart kids. I'm sure they won't do anything stupid."

But Finn still worried. He always did.


	2. Chapter 2

Finn and Rachel had gone to bed early that night. They were both exhausted from all of the prom preparations and picture taking, so they had passed out in bed as soon as they climbed in around 11:00.

By 12:30, they were being woken up again.

"Mom, dad," Alexis said as she came into her parents' room, "There's someone knocking on the front door."

Rachel mumbled something under her breath and rolled back over to sleep some more, but Finn popped open one eye and looked up at his daughter. "Alexis, sweetie, your mother and I are extremely tired, and you should be in bed," he told her stifling a yawn. "What was so important that you felt the need to wake us up?"

"I told you," she replied crossing her arms in front of her chest. "There's someone knocking on the front door, and it's keeping me awake. Go downstairs and make them go away."

Finn started to climb out of bed and finally heard the knocking. "Alright, I'll go downstairs and see what's going on. You go back to sleep." He brought his daughter back to her room as the doorbell started ringing. "I'm coming. I'm coming," he grumbled as he made his way down the stairs. He undid the various locks on the door and pulled it open to reveal a police officer standing there.

"Is this the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Finn Hudson?" he asked.

"Yes it is. What seems to be the problem, officer?" Finn asked unsure of why he would be getting a visit from a law enforcement official at this hour of the night.

"Sir, could I come inside for a moment?"

"Uhh, sure. Make yourself comfortable." Finn let the cop into his house and led him to the living room. He then sat down in one of the arm chairs and waited for the cop to sit down across from him.

"These kinds of calls are never easy," the cop started. Just then, Rachel came down the stairs with her robe wrapped tightly around her.

"Honey, what's going on down here? Come back to bed." When she turned into the living room and saw her husband sitting across from a police officer, her sleepy demeanor changed to one of worry. "Is there a problem," she asked as she sat down on the arm of the chair that Finn was sitting in.

"My name is Officer Rosenthal," he started. "We got a call earlier this evening around 11:45. There was an accident down on North Road. From what we've gathered in witness statements and the Puckerman boy, he was driving your daughter to her friend's house for the evening when their car was hit by a drunk driver. They swerved off the road and hit a telephone pole."

"Is Calliope okay? Do we need to go to the hospital? Finn, get the car keys. Now." Rachel asked as she stood up from the chair and started to go and grab her coat. Officer Rosenthal followed after her and brought her back to the living room where Finn instantly pulled her onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist to keep her from jumping up again.

"Ma'am, please calm down," Officer Rosenthal told her.

"I won't calm down. Where's my daughter? What happened to her?" Rachel asked obviously hysterical with worry.

"We got on the scene as soon as we could, but there was nothing we or the paramedics could do. Your daughter died on impact. The paramedics said that it was a quick death, and she wouldn't have felt much pain if any at all. We have the things of hers that were recovered from the car down at the station, and you can come pick those up whenever you're ready."

"You're kidding me, right?" Rachel asked starting to get hysterical. "This is just a sick joke, isn't it?"

"Ma'am, I assure you that I would not be here if it wasn't serious. I'm so sorry for your loss."

Rachel let out a small, strangled sob as she sunk down into Finn's arms, the realization of what had just happened finally sinking in. Finn almost couldn't react; he just sat their holding his wife as part of their world crashed down around them.

They just sat there like that for a few minutes before Finn had to get up to head back to the door with the police officer. "I'm going to get my wife back upstairs, and then I'll head down to the station to pick up Calliope's things. Expect me sometime in the next hour or so."

"Of course, Mr. Hudson" Officer Rosenthal said as he was leaving. "Again, I'm so sorry for your loss. I could never imagine losing one of my kids."

"Yeah, neither could I."

Finn had to practically carry Rachel back upstairs to bed. She could barely move on her own; all she could do was cry. And Finn couldn't blame her. He just felt numb all over.

"What are we going to tell the girls?" Rachel asked once Finn had laid her back in the bed.

"I don't know," he replied. "Just let them sleep. We'll talk to them in the morning. I'm gonna go down to the police station and get her things. You go back to sleep." He kissed his wife's forehead and headed back downstairs so he could drive over to the police station.

The drive there was short. He could barely remember getting in the car and driving over there, but there he was standing in front of the building almost too afraid to go in. Going inside would make it real. Picking up her things from some police officer who had probably never met his little girl before would make it real. Sitting there alone in the car kept him suspended in limbo where he could pretend that his daughter would be waiting at home to give him a hug when he got there.

He must have sat in that car for at least an hour before he made any move to get out, and even then he was moving painfully slow, doing anything to prolong the amount of time he had before he had to face reality. He finally entered the building and walked up to the first person he saw.

"My name is Finn Hudson," he said lifelessly. "I'm her to pick up my daughter Calliope's things."

The cop left him for a moment and returned carrying a plastic bag. "I'm so sorry for your loss," the cop said as she handed him the bag.

"Thanks. So am I." He walked out of the police station, climbed back into the car and just sat there with the plastic bag for a moment. When he was back at the house, he didn't remember turning on the car and driving home. Something in the back of his head told him that wasn't a good thing, but a larger part told him he didn't care.

He headed back inside and decided that he should just go to bed and leave her things for the morning, but when he got to his room, he found his bed crammed to capacity with his wife and daughters. No room for dad in the bed tonight.

He went back downstairs with the plastic bag still in his hand and collapsed on the couch. He tried to fall asleep, but his head was plagued with unpleasant thoughts. 'Might as well go through her things now,' he thought. He wanted to fight through the pain no matter how hard it hurt.

The first thing he pulled out of that plastic bag was her purse. A simple gold clutch that she had borrowed from Rachel earlier that evening. Just like the shoes. Opening the clutch, he emptied to contents onto the table. Nothing special was really inside, just some lip gloss, her prom ticket, a prom court ballot, her camera, and her phone. He made a mental note to look at the pictures on her camera later once he'd gotten some sleep. One of the lights on her phone was blinking, so he picked it up and noticed that she had about ten unread text messages. All of them were from various friends saying that they'd heard there was an accident and they were wondering if she was okay. That was another thing he was leaving for tomorrow. He couldn't deal with her friends right now. Not when she wasn't around.

He thought that her purse would be the only thing in the bag because he didn't remember her leaving with anything else, but there was something else in the bag. Two more items to be exact. The first was their prom favor: a small picture frame with the words "A Night to Remember" written across the bottom. The second item was a gold, plastic tiara with fake gem stones glued to it. He knew she hadn't had a tiara on when she left the house.

He stared at the tiara for a moment before looking back up around the rest of the room. And there, sitting across from him on one of the armchairs, was Calliope, still dressed in her prom clothes just as she had been the last time he saw her.

He set the tiara down on the table thinking that his eyes were playing tricks on him, but then she spoke, and he heard her voice just as clear as it had been when he talked to her earlier that evening.

"They crowned me prom queen, daddy," she beamed. "Can you believe it? Me a prom queen? And it was the best prom ever. All of my friends were there, and Kyle was a perfect gentleman all evening. He told me that he loves me, daddy. And I love him too. Everything was absolutely perfect."

She stood up from the chair and walked over to him, picking up the tiara and placing it on her head as she crossed the room. "Do I look pretty, daddy?" she asked him with bright eyes.

"You're beautiful, princess. Absolutely beautiful." He reached out to touch his daughter standing before him, to pull her into a hug and never let her go again, but she vanished before he could get close enough to even brush his fingers past her wrist. He blinked a few times, and she really was gone; he was unsure if she'd ever really been there in the first place.

The tiara was sitting back on the table just as he left it. Sitting there looking at that tiara, he cried for the first time since he'd found out. He laid down on the couch and closed his eyes preparing to cry himself to sleep and praying that he'd find all of this to be a nightmare when he woke up the next morning.


	3. Chapter 3

Morning came all too quickly for Finn, and its harsh reality was something that he wasn't ready for. His wife was sitting in the armchair that Calliope had appeared in the night before, and she was flipping through the pictures on their daughter's camera.

"Morning," he mumbled as he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Morning," Rachel replied with a small sniffle. It was obvious that she had been crying again. She got up from the chair and went to sit with her husband. "It looks like she had a great time last night." That was all she could say before the tears started to run down her cheeks. Finn wrapped his arms around her and held him close to her just rubbing her back in an attempt to calm her down.

"I know, Rach. I know," he whispered. He hated to see his wife hurting so much, but there was nothing he could do when he was hurting just as badly as she was. They just sat there like that for what seemed like ages until Rachel was able to speak again.

"I'm sorry you had to sleep down here last night," she told him as dried her eyes. "The girls heard me crying and came in to see what was wrong. I told them about Calliope, so they stayed in there with me. I think they're still asleep in there now."

"It's fine. It gave me some time to think," he replied as he kissed her temple. "What time is it?"

"Just after noon," she replied. "I called the funeral home, and set up calling hours . . . I called my dads, too. They're coming over in a little while. I was going to call your parents, Kurt and Blaine, too, but I couldn't." Her speech broke off again at that point as she was once again consumed by the sobs building up in her chest.

Finn consoled his wife again, rocking back and forth with her in his arms. He'd never seen her like this before, and it killed him inside. But, he understood her pain. He was dealing with it, too. They'd lost their daughter, and there was no way to ever bring her back. Finn only stayed strong on the outside for Rachel's sake, but on the inside, he was crumbling.

"I'll call them," he told her as he pressed a soft kiss to her temple. "You don't have to worry about that. You just worry about getting yourself ready for the day."

"Thank you," she replied as she got up from the couch and wiped her tears away with the sleeve of her robe. "I'm just going to go take a shower. You'll come and get me after the phone calls are made, won't you?"

He answered with a small nod and then watched as his wife turned to leave the room and headed upstairs. Calliope's phone stared at him from the table, blinking to let him know that more of his daughter's friends had texted her throughout the night, and once again he ignored it so he wouldn't have to break the news to anyone other than the immediate family.

Instead, he reached for the house phone and dialed the number for his parent's house praying that Burt would be the one to answer the phone. If his mom answered, there would be questions and crying, and he wanted to get this over with. He couldn't deal with hearing his mother so upset over the phone. Not now.

Burt's voice greeted him on the other side of the call, and he silently thanked God for this one small bit of luck.

"Hey, Burt, it's Finn. Do you and mom want to come over in a little bit? Rachel and I . . . we need . . ." He tried to tell his stepdad what had happened, but he couldn't find the words. And even if he could, they would've gotten stuck on the lump forming in his throat.

"Is everything okay over there?" Burt asked. The worry in his voice was apparent.

"Calliope . . . last night . . . car accident . . . not good . . . " He uttered the broken fragments of what he really wanted to say unable to clearly state anything anymore.

"Is she okay?"

"No."

"Where is she, Finn?"

"With my dad," he said in what was barely a whisper. It was the only thing he could say.

"We'll be over as soon as we can."

There were some mumbled goodbyes, and Finn hung up wishing that he was done with the phone calls. Telling Kurt would be harder somehow. Kurt liked to talk about feelings. Finn wanted to keep the feelings out. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself before dialing his brother's number.

"Hello? Hummel-Anderson residence," the voice of a young girl greeted him on the other side of the phone. Shit.

"Hi, Lily, it's Uncle Finn," he answered his five year old niece.

"Hi Uncle Finn!" the little girl exclaimed. "I miss you! And Auntie Rachel! And Calliope! Especially Calliope! She promised to teach me one of her cheers. When can I come over and see her?"

The lump in his throat was growing larger by the second. He had called to talk to Kurt; he couldn't break the news to niece. "I don't know sweetie," he said swallowing hard to try and get the lump to disappear. "Can I speak to one of your daddies? Is my brother there?"

There was silence on the other end until sounds of the phone being picked up again were heard. "Finn? It's Kurt. Are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here."

"What's going on? You never call unless someone's practically dying. I usually have to talk to Rachel if I ever want us to all get together and do something."

"Shit Kurt, don't say that." Finn was choking back the tears at this point, but he wouldn't let them fall. He couldn't.

"Finn, what's wrong? Tell me. Now."

"Calliope was in a car accident last night . . . she didn't make it," he breathed out. "Rachel's dads and mom and Burt are coming over in a little bit. We're just letting the immediate family know for now. Thought you'd like to come by. Rachel's a mess, and she could probably use her best friends right now."

"I'm so sorry. I can't even begin to imagine . . . Blaine and I will get the kids ready, and we'll be over as soon as we can."

An hour or so later, the house was filled with people all sitting there in silence. Rachel was crying again sandwiched between Kurt and Blaine on the couch. Her dads occupied a couple of the armchairs, and Finn's mother sat on the love seat with Burt. The little girl who had been so excited to learn a cheer from older cousin such a short time ago was curled up in a ball on her older sister's lap. Her crying had stopped as she had pacified herself in sticking her thumb in her mouth, but the evidence of her sadness was apparent on her tear stained cheeks. Finn sat between his other daughters just trying to detach from it all.

Eventually, the silence and the sadness in the room was too much for him to handle, so he excused himself to go upstairs not caring where he ended up as long as he wasn't surrounded by all of those crying people. He didn't want to let his wall down again.

He ended up in Calliope's room. Unsure of why that's the door he chose to open, he crossed over to sit on her bed and scanned the room. Her name was stenciled there above the headboard of the bed, and the twinkly lights she begged to put up were strung about the room. Staring up at the ceiling, Finn saw the glow in the dark stars he had helped her paste up into constellations there when she was only six years old. He remembered it as if he was still living in that moment. He wished he was living in that moment.

_"What constellation is that one?" Calliope asked as she pointed up at the ceiling from the spot where she was lying on the bed with her daddy._

_ "That's the Big Dipper or Ursa Major. It's supposed to be a big bear," Finn told her exhausting his knowledge of anything having to do with space. He had just pasted the stars up in a random order hoping that the Big and Little Dippers would be enough to make her think that he knew what he was doing for a few more years._

_ "A bear? It looks like a measuring cup to me," she replied. "What about those ones over there?"_

_ "Those would be the Golden Arches," he joked. "Ronald McDonald paid NASA to go up in a spaceship to rearrange the stars in the shape of his logo. It's great publicity."_

_ Calliope sat up in bed and put her hands on her little hips. She looked exactly like a miniature version of her mother when she did that. "Daddy, that is not true. You are making things up."_

_ "Now when did you get to be so smart?" he asked as he poked his daughter's stomach and watched her giggle and squirm._

_ "Mommy says that I'm a genius, and if I don't discover a cure for cancer I'm gonna be an astronaut."_

_ "That's my little girl," he smiled pulling her into a hug. "That's my little genius."_

_ "I love you, daddy," she said as she hugged him back._

_ "I love you, too, princess," he replied. "And I always will."_

The memory brought tears to Finn's eyes, but he wiped them away before they go anywhere. He had promised himself he wouldn't cry again. Not when he had a roomful of people downstairs.

"It's ok to cry, you know." Finn's head whipped back down from where he was looking at the ceiling. Sitting across from him on the bed was Calliope. He squeezed his eyes shut and told himself that she wasn't real. That it was only a figment of his imagination just like the night before. But, when he opened his eyes, she was still there.

"You don't have to hold it all inside, daddy," she said brushing a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "No one's going to think badly of you for showing your emotions."

"Guys don't do that," he replied indulging whatever games his mind was playing with him.

"Well daddies do . . . I'll still love you if you cry daddy."

"I love you, too, princess. And I always will."

And with that, he let the tears he had been holding in since he had woken up that morning spill out not caring who came up and saw him.


End file.
